Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Link Accidentally Enters a Hawaiian Military Base | Ear Biscuits Ep. 433

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

If you could only see what Link is wearing, you’d be jealous. In this episode, Link talks about his trip to Hawaii, where he learns some new extreme water sports, somehow finds his way into a very private military base, and leans into it all, with his vacation get-up. Find millions of new and used cars on https://www.autotrader.com/! Get 50% off a lifetime membership at https://rosettastone.com/ear To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash ymx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. This episode is sponsored by Auto Trader. You see a car and a movie that you just watched. You can find it on Auto Trader. Shop millions of new and used cars on Auto Trader. Shop millions of new and used cars on Auto Trader. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast for two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time.

I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, I am going to tell you about my vacation I am going to tell you about my vacation in the wonderful island of Oahu, Hawaii, Hawaii-a. As my relatives always called it. You went to Hawaii-a. Hi-way-a.

And I've never been to Oahu before. That's where Honolulu is. The big city. That's where you can fly into that airport. And that's where Pearl Harbor is. And I stayed in the town of Kailua, which I can tell you more about later. But before I get further into this, I've got to get back into vacation mode so that I can really take you there. And what does that require?

Um, it requires a change of clothes, so for the audio listeners only, well for everybody, but if they're audio only, maybe you wanna give them kind of a rundown of what's happening. Okay, he's taking his glasses off. Uh, well his face was a lot tanner than the rest of his body. I see that. His face got significantly tanner over the course of being gone, but your body didn't keep up. Yep. You've been wearing your shirt like a good boy.

And this is why. Look at this. Well, now he has on a light green hoodie that's... Long sleeve. It's long sleeve, it's tight fitting, it's like a thin hoodie. It's not, it doesn't, it looks like something you might wear for a camping trip. Not for like the elements. It is a sun... Okay, it's a sun shirt.

Sun shirt. With a hood. Oh gosh. And now he is, looks like he has a hat of some sort. It's a, we can no longer see the top half of his face. Yeah, you're- Okay, you're not doing a good job describing this. It's a wide brimmed fisherman's hat.

It looks like he is about to garden. He looks like he would be planting zucchinis. And now for the piece de resistance. And now he has a pair of sunglasses. I think I know about these. These are the pit vipers. Oh, wow. Don't steal my thunder.

Oh, okay. All right, he's about to show you a special feature. Are you ready? Whoopsh. Excellent, Yes. You now know... Why I did not go on vacation with him. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha That's too easy. Well, I'm gonna leave this hat up for now, but then I might take it down,

because I don't want the view of my wonderful glasses ensemble to be obstructed. Oh wow, now that. You see underneath there? You have the prescription underneath. Yep, I have the prescription glasses underneath the sunglasses, which flip up. The lenses are so small underneath there. I think for camera purposes, prescription glasses underneath the sunglasses, which flip up and flip down.

The lenses are so small underneath there. I think for camera purposes, just yes, yes. So we can see it, yes. You see that? Excellent. Make sure everyone's got a good view. You know when our director and long time creative partner here at Mythical Bin brought these sunglasses down to a special sunny shoot that we had for Wonderhole. And he would

have the sunglasses, then he would flip them up, and he would look into the camera, the eyepiece, and I just started thinking, man, I need some of those of those because I need I'm always switching my prescription happening these pit vipers not a sponsor to call the liftoffs This you know it's I need to write a letter to them or maybe you can tell Roger to talk to him for me Uh, I don't know if they're affiliated. I just wanna thank Pit Viper for making these wonderful flip up glasses because this was the best thing that happened to my vacation.

And, but it wasn't great for my love life. I will say that. Your wife didn't like him? No, she didn't like him. She didn't like him. But she got used to him. It kind of looks like I'm a jeweler, you know? That I'm like...

Or a welder. Or a welder or something. Did you... Are you saying that you wore them basically constantly? Yeah. A man gotta see. A man gotta go into the sun, then he gotta come into the shade. He's gotta go into Whole Foods and buy a coffee drink. And then he's gotta come out and he's gotta drive a car. So you're telling me that as you talked to your wife... When I was walking around the house, I was in this mode.

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't have liked that. You see that? I understand. I understand, Christy. But they're so practical. You know, the pit viper thing, I didn't know about this, this particular model, but. They usually have like the big gaudy. My kids went through a pit viper stage,

like four or five years ago, Locke and Sheppard were like, well, you gotta get pit vipers. And they got the ones that looked like NASCAR glasses. And I was like, oh, these are like Brett Hart glasses. Yeah, like wrestler glasses. And I was like, are you guys wearing these ironically? And they were, but I tried them on,

I was like, functionality, these things are so light. I'm gonna wear these mountain biking, certainly. I wear these with all of my sports. I think these are much better than the Brett Hart version, though. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because at least you've got that version when you fold them down.

So this was my outfit for the entire time. Is that moisture wicking? In Oahu, yeah, it's a quick dry moisture wicking. It's got- Odor control. It's got thumb holes so that I can have SPF protection to the top of my hands. Very important.

And the one thing that I didn't do for you is I didn't wear the shorts that I wore the whole time. And I never wore underwear. I wore pants the entire time I was gone, maybe twice, and I wore underwear the entire vacation, no more than four distinct occasions. Okay, could you expand on that? It was amazing.

Well, I'm wearing quick dry shorts. To have a liner. No, not even a liner. Some of them had a liner, some of them don't. And you know what? I can jump in the water, I can get out of the water, I can quick dry, I can quick wet. I can shower outside. I can dry outside. I can do

everything I need to do without getting too much sun everywhere except my face, which I did slather constantly with SPF, but it was a losing battle, because I was outside pretty much all the time. Okay, so at this point, I am anticipating where we might be going, and I'm just saying that I am afraid that we may have created a monster. Like that, what I, you, I can tell that you had such a good- A commando shorts.

No, no, no, not just because you were free-balling for a month. Hiking hat. But because you, it seems like what you did is you went to a beautiful tropical island and you found every single thing to, you perfected your experience. You're going to become addicted to vacation. And I want, I just, you need to be careful. You gotta be really careful. If you become, you're already addicted to napping.

If you become addicted to vacation, then I'm just gonna, I don't know what I'm gonna do, okay? I mean, this is a partnership. That's all I'm saying. As your creative partner in this, I'm worried about you becoming addicted to vacation just based on how you started this. I'm saying I might need to have an intervention after this. You can try, brah. You can try. You know what I'm saying?

I'm hanging so loose over here. Hello, hello? Literally. Who's calling? Nobody. Line disconnected. Everybody over there in Hawaii is doing the phone thing. Like, call me. Call me. Yeah, they're still on the landline. Call me. And I'm like, I don't know your number, but okay. Proceed.

The only other thing I wore, Christy took a picture one day. The only other thing I wore for shorts one day on the beach was my dog. Look at this picture. Jasper was sitting in my lap and she was like, oh my God, it looks like you're naked. Well, how short are your shorts? Are we talking a five inch inseam or are we talking less? I mean, I think they were just hiked up.

I don't know, but you can see, I think the hat, I am wearing the hat. See see it's around my neck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm of course wearing the glasses. And I'm wearing the dog is shorts, which that's the next level. I did take my dogs with me. The new dog beach. On vacation, it's not easy to get dogs into Hawaii

because they don't have rabies on any of the islands. So to avoid a two-week quarantine of any dog that you're trying to bring to Hawaii, you have to go through a lot of paperwork and veterinarian medical certification processes, which we did because the cost benefit analysis for the amount of time we were there versus boarding them and having them with us, I wanted them with us. And it was a big positive part of the vacation. I'm gonna take the glasses off

because they're providing so much effective shade that my eyes are not being expressive for the podcast that you're not. Oh, okay. And I do wanna take you into account. But I wore this all the time, and I wore the hat all the time, and the strap was really important because I rented a Jeep,

and I took the top off of the Jeep. So I'm driving around Oahu in this topless Jeep, I guess that's what you call it. I don't know, you know, it didn't have a, I took the top off. I took the rag top down, baby. And there's so much wind and I'm driving and I'm making wind that I gotta strap my hat on

real, real hard to my head. And I was really excited to have this Jeep, and I'm like, hey, let's get in this Jeep. At the time, it was just Christie and Lando. The older kids came for a little bit of time, but they weren't there at the very beginning. So like, day one, I'm like, let's start exploring this island.

Let's start driving up and down the coast. Let's see what's going on. I got the Jeep. You can look out, you can look up, you can look out, you can look right, you can look left. I kinda feel like I want one of these. Very fun. It's not good for the hair though, but I got the hat.

Okay. So we're driving around, and'm just kind of looking on Google Maps and trying to stay as close to the coast as possible. It's not a very big island, right? And well... Compared to the other ones that you've been on. Well, to get from Honolulu, you drive across the island to the east side to Kailua, where we stay. That's like a 30-minute drive over and through the main mountain

range. 30 minute drive. And then when you're on the east side, if you wanna go up the east coast, you can go up to the north shore. North shore, where the big waves are. Once you go in the winter, the waves are huge. Minimum 20 foot wave to have a surf competition. That's measuring the front of the wave,

which means it's 40 foot if you're measuring the back of the wave. Hawaii Facts, you came back with Hawaii Facts. And if you drive up past the North Shore, it turns into a dirt road and it ends. You can't make your way all the way around the island. You have to kind of go the other direction if you want to see the west side. So I experienced a lot of sunrises, but very few sunsets.

So we're driving around in this Jeep, hugging the coast, trying to see what we can see, and all of a sudden, I'm going out, I could tell from the beach earlier that if I looked north, there was this big outcropping. And the way that Hawaii was created is volcanoes, Rhett. But you've got these major eruptions which form the islands, and then you'll see all around the edge of definitely Oahu, you've got these points where you've got these volcanic craters or big masses of volcanic mountain, like a mountain at the edge.

It was like many years later, I'm not good with numbers, but after the main eruptions there was like... Not more than 6,000. We know that. Okay, yeah. Residual eruptions that created these points. And there was this one out there, and I'm like, we're gonna get to that. So I'm hugging the coast, and then all of a sudden, it's like marshland on either side, and there's signs that say this is protected area. And then the row gets really narrow, like before you can get back into, like, that big point. And there's chain-link fences on both sides of the...

We both knocked over the tumbler. That's why it's called a... Now we're even. It's called a tumbler because it can tumble. Yeah, it can knocked over the tumbler. That's why it's called a tumbler, because it can tumble. Yeah, it can take that kind of abuse. Chain link fences on either side of this two lane road, people are coming out, I'm meeting people, and I'm like, they're seeing me with my hat and my Jeep and my family, and they're thinking,

he's going reconnaissance, and I was. Reconnaissance for what? What, Alphite? Just knowing the island. Okay. On behalf of yourself. But they were really protecting the wildlife. And then all of a sudden we get across the narrow part

and then even though the road could go totally straight, there's all these barricades and the road does this like really fancy S to the right, like almost a 90 degree turn to the right. And then you go around some barricades and then you come around to the, and you go around the barricade and then you're S-ing the other way.

And then you do that again. And then I look up and then there's a big toll booth. And I'm thinking, what music do I need to play to go through a wildlife toll booth? Because I'm like, I'm really curating this experience for my fans. Oh, you were DJing this whole thing? Hell yeah.

Wow. Hell yeah. Who do you think I am? What were you playing up to this point? I was playing some summertime music, you know? Okay, like, like, Bill Smith's Summertime? I played some of that. I played some Childish Gambino, Summertime.

That's a good song. Donna Summers? I didn't play any Donna Summers. She's singing, there's only one. Okay, all right. So then I, Suzanne. Okay. All right. Suzanne. So then I see...Suzanne's summer. I'm seeing the toll booth and... On a dirt road?

No, it's paved. Okay. But before you get to the toll booth, once you go through the final S, there's a stop sign and then you can turn around in front of the toll booth and go back the way you came. Or you can go through the stop sign and you can go past the toll booth where there was a man standing in a uniform. What kind of uniform?

Like nature guy, park guy, or police guy? Well, it was greenish, so I'm thinking wildlife guy. And I'm like, wildlife guy. Okay. And I'm like, well, I can see him. He's like, he's now 15 feet in front of me, but three feet in front of me is a stop sign. So, and there's no stop sign at the guy at the toll booth. So I stop at the stop sign. And then I start going

and I go right next to the guy. And when I get that close, it's very clearly a military uniform. Top to bottom, hat, everything. And his stance was very, it was very, he had a very taut stance, like legs kinda spread, he's kinda like those, like the Apple keynote speakers. So this wasn't a toll booth, this was a gate.

I think if I hit him with the Jeep, he wouldn't have fallen over. Like that's the type of energy this guy was putting out. But there was no stop sign beside him, and he didn't have his hand out for me to take a toll. So I drive past him as close to him as I am to you right now. You didn't ask him any questions?

I kinda reached out to him and patted him on the shoulder. And he could have reached out and grabbed me by the neck if he needed to. What was your family doing at this point? Uh... I think Christy was saying things like, uh, uh, like the start of thoughts. You shoulda let her finish him. So, and I'm driving slow, I'm like, well I'm just gonna drive slow past this guy. And as I get right past him,

to continue to go into the volcanic island outpost, he says, stop! Well, yeah. Like that. Stop! So I stopped. Okay, that's what it took. And then he took like one step over.

He's like, he's like, sir, I need to see your license. And at this point I'm like, yeah, I stopped, I stopped at the stop sign, I'm getting my license out. But you had your ID, which is- I did have my ID. Which is a big win for you. Yeah, I didn't have my credit card, so I haven't found that. Okay.

Not important. So as I'm reaching for my driver's license and giving it to him, I'm like, yeah, I was just confused because the stop, I stopped at the stop sign, I didn't know if I needed to also stop here. And he said, sir, this is a restricted military base. Yeah.

How did you get to the gate? You're not, I just, I told you, I drove. I went around the S's. There was no fence or anything. No, this is it. This is the- There's just a man. There's just a man and I guess if I was going faster,

I could have blown past it. This is not a Link-proof facility, I'll tell you that much. You can't keep him out. So he takes my license, and I'm like, I hope I get that back. And he looks at it. I mean, the dude could have been a straight... I mean, the dude was capable of, name anything the dude was capable of. He sounds more... Kind of intimidating.

He sounds more intimidating than a Portuguese police officer. I don't, yeah, hell yeah. I don't know why I didn't stop in retrospect. So he takes my license and then another guy comes up... And he just takes a bite out of it. Yeah. He starts eating it. Ha ha ha. Right. And as he's looking... That was a good scene in the movie.

Yeah. Let me see your license. You're gonna start eating it. As he's looking at my license, two things happen. The first thing that happens is another guy comes up behind him. Reinforcements. Oh, another man in green. Yes. Back up. And then the second thing that happened was

he's staring at the license and then slowly but steadily, his frown starts turning into this big grin. Oh gosh, he's a fan. And he says, my brother is not gonna believe. Ha ha ha ha ha! We use, we, Good Mythical Morning? I'm like, yeah!

Ha ha ha ha ha! And he was like, we watched you like all the time growing up and like, I just can't, I just can't believe that you're here. And I was like, and he was like, well you can't go on the base without an escort. And I was like, well you can be my escort. Because at that point the temperature totally shifted.

And I was like, oh yeah, I can still go. And he was like, well you gotta be off duty. And I was like, okay,, I can still go. And he was like, well, you gotta be off duty. And I was like, okay, I'll give you a call. I just thought it was a wildlife refuge. That's the only sign I saw it was for a wildlife refuge. And the guy behind you started laughing. And he was like, well, you're gonna have to turn around here and exit. And I'm like, all right, well, tell your brother.

I said, what's up? Did you ever go back and get your tour? No, no, no, no. And this is probably- I was a little sheepish. My guess is that this is the pre-gate. If this is a military facility, around another couple of S's, there's like a real gate.

Probably, right? Well- I've accidentally driven up to military bases before and it seems like how you did it. He said if I would have continued that it would have escalated pretty quickly. Yeah, that would have been fun. Yeah, especially for Lando and Christie. So I turned around and I shifted to more of like

some downbeat defeated music. Oh, and did you say what music was playing during this? Did you get to that? I don't remember. At that point, I just, I don't remember. Once you start handing over licenses, you're no longer in, I'm not in snuggle baby mode. Right.

And he was in El Cal mode, you know what I'm saying? So we turned around, we left, we had a lot of fun driving the Jeep around. What was the last thing that filled you with wonder that took you away from your desk or your car in traffic? Well, for us, and I'm gonna guess for some of you, that thing is anime. Hi, I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee-Ally Murray.

And I'm Leah Prescott. And welcome to Crunchyroll Presents, the Anime Effect. It's a weekly news show. With the best celebrity guests. And hot takes galore. So join us every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel.

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Visit rosettastone.com slash ear. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash ear today. We get to the house and we're hanging out. Like we had this great spot. We're on the house and we're hanging out, we had this great spot, we're on the beach, we're really living the life here.

And the things that we had the privilege of seeing, like I'm sitting out there on the back porch just chilling and then Christy all of a sudden comes from inside and she's like, look, look at that plane! And there was, at the nearby park, there was a, there was like some sort of park party celebration,

community celebration going. And I'm like, okay, this plane's part of that. Because it was very clear to me, because the things this plane was doing, it was like a blue an- there was not three or five of them. It wasn't a formation of planes. It was just one plane, but it was like doing all the blue angels. When you say blue angel, you mean a jet. A jet plane. Yeah. Like doing, um... This wasn't a gender reveal with a crop duster.

No. Where I was going. No, this thing was like going up into the, doing loops and going up into the air and like doing spirals and he would do this trick where he would go up and it would almost be like a free fall. Have you seen? Mm-hmm. And then the planes would like come back down and it's like, oh my God.

And putting on a show for everybody on the beach. This is an air show. It's an air show. And so to the point that I got up out of my seat and I walked forward and I was just standing there watching. And then we're like, you gotta get Lando to look at this. I walked forward and I was just standing there watching. And then we're like, you gotta get Lando to look at this. We couldn't rouse him. But me and Christy are sitting there,

I'm like, well, he's gonna miss this. And we're sitting there watching this plane for like five, seven, 10 minutes, like doing amazing things. I'm like, this is wild. And you're saying it was part of a party? I mean, I know that down the beach at the park, there was like, I mean, it was a huge community party.

It was a hell of a party. That's true. I mean, the fuel cost alone for this air show, I don't know who these people are. Is that what you'd be saying if you were there? Yeah, that's a dad thing. How much fuel are we spending? What me and Chrissy were saying was like...

That was $450. Can you imagine being... That little thrust. ...in that plane? Like, what would you be doing? Of course she's afraid of flying. What would you be doing if you were in that plane with the pilot doing all this stuff?

She'd be shitting and throwing up at the same time. I think I would be dying. Yeah, right. So that's what we were talking about. And then we're just like, we're watching and watching and watching, and we get quiet, and then all of a sudden, Christy's like,

I think it's a lot closer. Is it close? Oh my gosh. And then I'm like, oh my God. You guys did. This is a toy plane. You watched a remote control plane. This is a remote control plane. For 10 minutes.

For over 10 minutes. Did you not notice the sounds? I was, you know, if anything indicates I was having a good vacation. And also. Me and Christy are having a good vacation. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz but it was really close and smaller and unmanned. Maybe I do need to go on vacation with you. So that in the first four seconds, I'm like, hey man, that's a toy plane.

Don't get too excited about this. Or I'll just be like, I'll let you enjoy it for at least five minutes. I mean, at least I didn't film it, you know? I wish you did! Because then I'd be like, that's a toy plane. Hey, I've gotten caught in some of these TikTok holes of these people doing crazy shit with these remote control planes.

It's nuts. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish I could have seen it. If you think it's a real plane, it's even more impressive. There's a place in the valley where you can go and just stand there and they'll just be doing that all day. I've been there, I used to live over there.

You used to live over there, right? Yeah. There's one of those on the island. I think that... Yeah, pretty close to where you were, apparently. So somebody got off the remote control airport and took it out here on the beach and was just wowing us. Like, how close do you think? Because they do get big, I will say that. They get like feet long. showing us. Like, how close do you think? Because they do get big, I will say that. They get like feet long.

Yeah, it can be like, the wingspan was probably still like six, seven feet. It was huge. I mean, it's just not what you think of when you think of a remote control plane. But I've been to the one in... And who was the first person to notice it? Christie.

Okay. You start to like really look at it. Christie. Okay. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha A hobby horse. We would walk the dogs on the beach every morning. And so like, we had this special collar that keeps Jasper from like going nuts at other dogs. Like, yes, it can shock you, but... It can also just buzz. It can also just beep or beep and buzz. And we just use the beep and buzz.

And that is totally effective. We use it for a Shawn and Barbara, too. So there's dogs allowed on the beach and when you go out, you know, with our time change and with the sun rising, like we were up with the sun. So it was like on this beautiful beach with mostly locals walking their dogs first thing in the morning.

It was like a consistently special time for me and the dogs and Christy would show up about half the time and then it would be a special time for us as well. And Jasper was able to go off leash and Jade did not like the sand, but she got used to it. And we're walking up this beach and it's constantly windy.

It's like, steady and wild. Which explains why- Even in the early morning? Yeah, yes. Yeah. And as we're walking up the beach, I mean, you can walk,

we can walk a mile one way, and we could walk a mile the other way too, and then before you had to turn around and come back. This is a long stretch of beach, but once you go one way down to that park where they were having the party, look at watching the plane, or not. There's a launching place for all of these wind sport

contraptions that I was not familiar with. Not much surfing on the beach, a lot of boogie boarding around where we were, but like up there at that end, they were launching kayaks, but also kite surfing and wing foils, wing foiling, wing foils, wing foiling, which is, I mean, amazing to watch. So like, first of all, the kite surfing, they're on what I would call a wakeboard.

Like very flat, doesn't float, very thin, strap your feet into it. Doesn't float. Doesn't float. Well, it might float, but it doesn't, it's not like it would support your body weight floating, like a paddle board or something. Yeah. And they unfurl these huge kites,

and they're basically, instead of wakeboarding behind a boat, you're, in my description, wakeboarding behind a huge ass kite, going fast. Just breakneck speeds on this thing. And then the people who are really good at it, this is like the spot for it. People are taking flight, going 20 feet in the air, and just letting the kite take them. are taking flight, going 20 feet in the air,

and just letting the kite take them, and then coming back down and then continuing to go. And then some people are like, I mean, they're doing like 360s in the air, and it's wild, see. People jump over piers. There's one guy who jumped over an outer bank. What? I can believe it. On YouTube. If you get the right wind and you know what you're doing. What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it?

What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it?

What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it?

What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? to take your life because there was a news story of somebody getting sucked up in a kite and then landing on a road.

I don't know if it was a freeway, it got hit by a car. Oh, so it wasn't hitting the road that killed him. It got hit by a car. Wow. Cause you lose control and this kite will just take you off the ocean or wherever you're doing it and just plop you down in traffic. That's unfortunate. The... So they weren't foiling, but then you have windsurfers which are...

Old school. Old school. They're on like a little big... A sailboat, but the boat is a surfboard. Yep. Exactly. And that is old school. But then the newfangled thing that's been out for a few years is the wing. It's a super light inflatable, like, could be six feet, could be seven, could be eight feet, but like, wingspan. And it's a, just an inflatable wing with a leash that's attached to your wrist, and you're holding on to handles. Yeah, you just hold it up.

And you're just holding it up. And then you're on a big, floatable board that then once you get up to speed, and if you're good at it, you can do it almost instantly, you come up out of the water and you're on a hydrofoil. So like the board is like two feet out of the water and then the foil underneath is still, is what's keeping you going.

And you have like, you're just zipping around with minimal interference from the water. And it's smooth as glass, even though the water is like choppy. Yeah, it smooths it all out. So I'm walking the dogs every morning and I'm watching kites go in front of the rising sun and then these wing foils just zipping around,

going way out there and turning around and coming all the way back and just having a wonderful zen-like time. And after like four days of seeing this, I'm like, well, I think I'm here long enough to do this. I'm gonna learn how to do this. And I, cause I know, I'm sure you can rent paddle boards, you can rent kayaks, I'm sure you to do this. I'm gonna learn how to do this. Cause I'm sure you can rent paddle boards, you can rent kayaks, I'm sure you can rent this stuff.

So I looked into it and like I found an outfit that will teach you how to do it. And I called him up and I'm like, I wanna learn how to do this. But you picked, why did you pick the one you picked? I picked kite surfing at first. At first, oh, okay. Well, because- I don't remember why.

Because I'm like, I know how to wakeboard. Before you continue on with where it went for you, it's funny because I knew that you had been interested in this because we spoke some while we were apart. And when you told me about this, I told you that literally the day before in Portugal, I had been at this windy beach on this larger tour that we stopped at this beach.

And they were like, this is the windiest place in all of Europe. And this is the furthest west point of... Like it was close to the furthest west point of all of Europe. Mm-hmm. And there were... Same thing. Foil guys with the wings, there were the kite surfers, and there were the windsurfers.

And I'm sat there and I just watched them for like 30 minutes. And then we went to eat, and I just got on my phone and did what I do, and I did all this research. Yeah. To be like, well, which one should I do? Cause I know I can do this in California cause people do it in Long Beach, they do it in Ventura, they do it in LA.

And I'm like going on there and I'm like going on Reddit and looking at this versus this. And the first thing I learned is that don't do windsurfing. Like windsurfing makes no sense. It's old school. Only if you already do it, you definitely need to do kite or the wing. Yeah, I saw that.

And then I was like, kite is the easiest one to start with. Right. And so I was like, I'm gonna do kite. And that's why I called the guy up and said, I wanna learn how to do the kite surfing, but I'm also thinking about the other wing thingy, what's that called? And he's like, tell me, he's like, well, watch some more YouTube videos and decide we'll book you down for like a 7 a.m. in four days, and then you just let me know

if you change your mind in between now and then. And then I kept going out and watching those kite people and like, I did more research and they were like, okay, your first lesson, you can learn it quicker, but then There's It takes a long time to master I think I mean if you want to start like flying like jumping up and jumping over dunes and stuff and which I didn't think I would want to do that but

And then when you I learned that if you take the lesson, the first lesson, you're just... you have to stand on the shore and just learn how to fly a kite. Because these things are very dangerous. If you don't know how to fly the kite, you can decapitate someone else who's just walking on the beach. You know, there's like multiple strings attached to it, and if they twist around and get around somebody,

it's happened. So there's like horror stories, people dying in traffic. And then I'm like, well, I don't want to spend two hours and a good chunk of change standing on the beach, just learning how to fly a kite. And then it seemed pretty hard on the body, and then when I was watching the wing foilers,

it just seemed like ballet. Seemed easy on the body. Hmm. And it seemed like beautifully relaxing, like more of a zen practice. So I changed my mind and said, I wanna learn how to do that. And I showed up for the first lesson, So I changed my mind and said I wanna learn how to do that.

And I showed up for the first lesson with the owner of the company. We get there at 7 a.m. on the beach and had a two hour session. And we still spent a lot of time, like he showed me how to pump the thing up and how to hold the wing and how to keep it safe so you don't puncture it. You know, there's all this,

and then you have to stand on the beach, know how to orient yourself to the wind and hold this thing, and just to start to learn what it feels like to work this thing in the wind. And it's a lot of overhead stuff. So like, after 30 minutes of me just holding this wing over my head, I am absolutely spent.

Yeah, I was thinking, watching those guys do something. They're holding that thing up the whole time. I'm not in the... I haven't touched the water. This doesn't feel zen to me. I guess if it's pulling up. Yeah, like basically like in a military press, like holding your, and I've had shoulder issues, you know? Right.

But I'm in a good place. I can put both my hands over my head. But yeah, I was just, I was kind of spent. And then we, so then we get in the water. And you start with one that has a foil on it? Yeah. What, that seems so hard. Well, keep talking about it.

I guess, cause when you're learning, you're not gonna get to the foil part, you know, and in the first two hours, you're just gonna maybe get on the board, maybe stand with the wing, maybe move a little bit. Maybe start to make some forward progress. I didn't, you know? I could, I got on the board,

and you have to orient the board, like, in a certain way to the wind. Like, you have to put your back to the wind. No, no, no, never. You're literally just freestanding on a board. It's just like being on a big paddle board, and when you climb on, instead of having a paddle, you have this big wing in your hand.

But you couldn't stand on this board without something pulling you up. Yeah, you could. You could just get on this board and just stand? Yes, like a paddle board. Yeah, it supported your weight and you could just stand there. It was that big. It wasn't as long.

You think I could stand on it? Yes. I mean, to learn, it was like the most buoyant. Having paddle boarded, it made you easier to stand on a board and hold yourself up. Totally, and it was, but immediately you've got this wing and it's interacting with the wind to kind of pull you over. But in the first lesson, once I got in the water,

I was on my knees trying to turn the board with the wing on the surface of the water and trying to orient the board, not downwind, but basically kind of upwind. And then try to get the wing out of the water. And when you do that, if it catches the wrong way, it immediately flips over. So then you have to like turn and use all your might to flip the wing back over and then once you've done that, I'm completely oriented in the wrong

direction so now I have to figure out how to turn the board back the other way. And so it was tremendously frustrating and exhausting and that's all that happened in two hours. And so then I went back and I was like really defeated and I go home and I start watching all these YouTube videos of this guy in Florida who's teaching people how to do it. And really helpful, the name of the YouTube channel is Damien Leroy, Damien L-E-R-O-Y, great channel. He kinda gave me confidence, he's like,

hey, you can do this, don't give up. It's wonderful, you can try it do this, don't give up, it's wonderful, you can try it, watch, this student is learning and. Look at this person, they're not good at stuff, they're doing it. They're getting it. And so I felt like, okay, I was learning some stuff, I went to bed that night and I started dreaming about it and I was having these visualizations of being able

to do it and I would wake up more confident. So I signed up for another two-hour lesson. And I said, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna keep doing this until I have to leave the island, until I learn or run out of time. And I just became fixated on it. I just, I don't know why. And then, so then I call him up to do the second lesson.

He was like, I wanna take you out on the E-Foil. Oh, the Zuckerberg. The Zuckerberg. You've seen him, like, I was like, wow, this is Zuckerberg, I don't know if I wanna do that. Even for July 4th, I saw that he was like, holding an American flag and like... He does that every year now. And then like hydrofoiling with basically it's like a, you know,

it's got an electric rudder, I don't know what the word is. Motor. Propeller. Electric propeller on the back. And so we went on, not on the ocean, but on an inlet, like a river that goes into it, flat water. And I had a one hour session, and within 10 minutes I got up on this thing because I'd watched more videos about it

and he was giving me instructions. This seems dangerous. Here's a propeller in the water that you're falling into. They can go, the propeller is, yes. It is protect, some of them have like a ring around and it's kind of protected, but you gotta know where to get, you gotta get on the side and then you don't activate it until you're on it.

And then you can govern how fast it can go. So to learn, you can like set like level two instead of not go to like level eight. But so I'm, it's basically like getting up on a knee board, being pulled by a boat is what it feels like. But then- You start on your knees. Yeah, you start on knees and then you stand up. And then once you get enough speed,

it starts coming out of the water and you have to shift your hips forward and backward to like find this super unique sweet spot to keep this thing from either nose diving into the water or launching you into the air. And I had some success and then a couple of times I took some really hard falls and the thing like hit me in the thigh and like cut me

and then hit me in the other calf and like it was. What part hit you, the foil? I got cut by the foil on the thigh and I got hit blunt force trauma on the left calf and the left ankle. And so I was like, but I got up. The main problem was to continue to learn how to wing with the way that the wind is blowing,

I have to start goofy footed and I'm regular footed. Well, what do you mean by this? So, I understand what goofy footed is. Just like on a skateboard or, well, you have to start with your back to the wind when you're holding the wing. And the wind was to my back such a way that I had, and then aiming out, I had to have my right foot forward.

Oh, you're saying that, wherever, whatever location you learn to do this at, depending on which way the wind typically blows. You put your back to the wind and then you hold the wing out to your, on your front side. And you have to twist. You put your back to the wind and then you hold the wing out on your front side. And you have to twist. So it forces you to be whatever. So I was forced to learn goofy footed.

So then when I'm on the e-foil, I started regular footed and I got it within 10 minutes. And it was magical. I mean, the resistance is nothing and it feels like you're flying. It was amazing. Can you do the e-foil just like in the ocean? Yeah.

Yes. And then, so the thing that I had to learn at that point was, I had to try it goofy-footed. Which, I mean, like, I've tried to switch stance snowboarding, really hard to do, impossible on a skateboard, which I'm not good at, but I was able to do it. I was able to do it on the eFoil, and I think it's because I was dreaming and visualizing it. Dreaming and goofy.

Yeah, so I wasn't great, but I had enough control. I could get up and steer it some. But at that point, you didn't say to yourself, Then I had confidence. I just need to do the E-foil. I thought about it. I know those things, they're like, really, it's like a car. It's like buying a car.

Yeah. I looked into those two. I would, yeah, I really thought about it, but I was like, I really wanna try to learn the wing. Yeah. You know? The other thing about the wing is that when you can buy one, you can pack it up into a backpack and you can take it anywhere. And then you can just rent a board wherever you go.

You can't do that with kite surfing. They're so dangerous that you just can't go into a shop and rent a kite surfing outfit, usually. But you can rent a wing and a foil much more readily as you travel to different places. So that kinda helped me seal the deal. I was like, yeah, yes, I could e-foil. But am I gonna buy one?

I don't live close enough to the water to buy one, so I'm not gonna, I wanna learn the real thing. I wanna have a relationship with the wind. So I signed up for my third lesson, which is really my second lesson. And a difficult thing happened to me on the way to my lesson. Is that sunrise?

Basic, well, it's at seven, but the sun is still kind of rising and I'm driving out there and I'm going back to the same place to meet my instructor. And I have to navigate through this traffic circle. Oh, those are tough. That's under construction. Oh, even worse.

So I'm going around this traffic circle with my shades on and my hat on and the wind blowing in my hair and I'm entering the circle and then there's other traffic trying to go and then when I go around, halfway around the circle, I get blasted in the eyes with the rising sun. I can't, I could see barely that there were two cars

trying to enter the circle. I had the right of way to continue going around the circle. You could be in the circle all day if you want. I could be in the circle all day, but I thought that they were moving. So I hit the brakes. Hit the brakes in the circle. And then I couldn't see

and I really felt like they were coming so I stopped. Oh no. Completely in the circle. To be safe. And then I'm like, now I'm stopped. And so I just like wave the person on and they go. But what about the person behind you who also can't see you, that you're stopped? Yeah, good question.

That person behind me did not hit me. But what I was struck with was a bunch of very aggressive yelling. Okay, that's good. Open top, you can hear every word. I heard everything. Were they also open top or window down? I think the window was down.

Okay. And it was aggressive and it was also like very strong German accent. Ah. Which made it that much more forceful. Right. also very strong German accent. Which made it that much more forceful. And so then I start going around the circle, and as I'm going around the circle, the person behind me continues to yell with this emphatic German accent at me.

Small circle. As I'm going, yeah, I can hear him more out of the left side now, oh, okay. Just ripping me. Small circle. Yeah, I can like hear him, more out of the left side now, oh okay. Just ripping me a new one. And then, so then I take the next exit off of the circle, and I'm like okay. But then, He follows you.

The yelling continues. Oh yeah, he picked the wrong exit. And I look in the rear view mirror, and there's the German. And so, even though I wasn't at the parking lot, I was close, but I wasn't at the parking lot, yet I pull over. I was like, would you just go by, good God.

So, she goes by. Oh, she goes by. And I just kinda look, and then the next turn is into the parking lot. It's the only way to go. So like, then now I'm following her into the parking lot. And I'm looking for my instructor, and I don't see his van yet. So then, okay, I was like, well, at least she's parking up there.

And then I pull over to the right in a space. And I'm there, and I get in the space, and I'm really worked up at this point. I'm angry, I also feel stupid, I also have this adrenaline flowing from feeling like I was going to hit somebody, and just being subject to a tirade. So I'm just sitting there, I'm like, you know what?

I'm just gonna breathe. So I'm like, I'm just sitting there, just breathing, just trying to calm myself down. Okay, yeah. And I hear the German woman again. Closer. And I hear the German woman again. Closer. And she's walking up to me. Oh God.

She walks up to me and she's like, she's apologetic but still angry. Help me understand that. It was like, I'm not gonna try to do the accent. Oh, I would love for you to try. It's like, you can... I'm sorry for yelling, but you cannot stop in the circle! Yeah. You cannot! It's... you have to right of way. And I said, I said, well the sun was in my eyes

and I thought that the cars were moving. It's like, that is not how the circle works. And then she said, I was like, I was like, I hear you. And then she said, I know that you're a tourist. Oh. But you. What gave it away? And there is. And I know that the circle is under construction.

Was it my sun shirt, my hat, my glasses, my obvious rental Jeep? What was it? Yeah, right. I know that you're a tourist and that it's under construction, but I did not want to hit you. You cannot stop, and I'm sorry for yelling. But I... and I was like...

Well, she's kinda nice. And then I said, I know how the circle works. I was being extra cautious because I thought that people were entering the circle. She's like, okay. And then she walks off and I see the van come up. My instructor's pulling up. I was like, okay. And then I was like, well, it's gonna take you a minute to get everything out. I need to try that breathing thing again. I was like, I just can't be this worked up going into the session.

So I'm sitting there and I'm breathing and I see my instructor get out and he walks up to the edge of the, he walks away from me up to the edge and like to look at the conditions. And I get out of the Jeep and I start walking over there and he's checking out the conditions. And there's, I'd seen from the last time

there was a number of locals around and they all talked to each other. But the local that he was talking to in particular was, you guessed it, her. And so when he starts walking back, and I'm walking back, now she's walking back too. Oh God. I was like, I don't want her to apologize again.

So then I was like, as I'm talking, like I say, I say morning and then before my instructor says anything, I'm like, and we've already met this morning, because I'm like, okay, obviously they know each other. I was, and we've already met this morning, because I'm like, okay, obviously they know each other. I was like, we've already met this morning. And then, and she's like, I'm so sorry. I was like, listen, it happens. Don't worry about it, it's fine.

And then I start talking to my instructor about, you know, like, I changed the subject, start talking to him, and then she is still there and she's like hanging around and she says, she interjects and was like, I don't think there's enough wind today for you to go out there. And then my instructor is like,

well, this is his second lesson. Who is, how is she an authority? Exactly. He's just a friend? And then I was like, and he was like, well, this is his second lesson, he did pretty good. I think he can build on it, we can work with it today. And I'm like, yeah, you know,

I'm here, I'm inclined to give it a shot, because she was like, and then she was like, okay, and then my instructor just kind of walks back to the van, and now I'm hanging out with her. Oh. And she starts instructing me. Oh no. She's my instructor.

Ha ha ha ha. I thought she was just gonna be in your class, but she's the instructor. She's the freaking instructor. So he's like the head of the company that finds you an instructor. Yeah. Well, he instructed me the first time, but the second time he didn't tell me that he was gonna get somebody else. He didn't tell me. Wow.

And then when I, I guess I headed him off of the path and I was like, we've already met. I was just joking about the encounter we had. He thought I was saying that I know that she's my instructor. And then, so then she's like, okay, well, tell me more about the first lesson, and then she started talking about it, and then she was like, in the middle of like telling me things as if she was like, I'm so sorry. You know, she felt like absolute shit.

And then she was like, today I teach you how to go in circles. She felt... Lesson number one. She felt so bad that she kept... she couldn't keep instructing me right there on the shore because she just kept going back to like, I just feel so bad about this. She road raged her student. Yeah. So I wonder...

She was like, after I did it, I was just thinking, I hope that is not my student. And it was. Hi, I'm PJ Vogt, here to tell you about my new podcast, Search Engine. Search Engine was one of the very best new podcasts of 2023. According to Vulture, Vogue, Time Magazine, and The Economist. We answer fascinating questions about business tech and history. Questions like, why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? Who should be in charge of artificial intelligence? How did ADHD medication get so popular so fast? Listen and follow Search Engine with PJ Voet and Odyssey Podcast, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. How did the lesson go?

And then I was like, I totally understand, I forgive you, the shoe's been on the other foot, it's totally fine, and I'm also thinking, and I have a podcast, and I am gonna, I have to, I have to, I have to do what I have to do. So the score is more than evened, eventually. Let's just put this behind us. Whenever something is happening to either one of us, we're thinking, ah, we have a podcast. I did not tell her that I was gonna tell him the story.

I think that's one of the reasons that I remained calm during the Portuguese police thing. Right, so that you can be the hero of the story. Even if I get locked up abroad, I'm not looking forward to that. And it probably won't happen, but if it does, boy, that'll be a great podcast. So she, yeah.

So I was able to take the high ground and then even after her lesson, I was glad to give her a tip because it was a good lesson, but like I could tell she didn't wanna take the tip. You had a breakthrough in that lesson? Where are you at on this right now? That's what I wanna know. That was lesson two.

And after that, I made just a little bit of progress. I stood up, but then I would fall. So I got to where I could orient the board and keep the sail in the position I wanted it so that I could think about starting. That's what happened in the second two-hour lesson. Then I went for a third two hour lesson with her again. Okay. And so we're like, we're building a lot of rapport.

I'm learning stuff. Did she apologize at all in that third lesson or was it no talk about it? No, I think there was, there might've been a joke about it, but like we had totally moved on. And you know, I enjoyed her company and like we had a good time,

but boy, it was hard. I was really having a tough time. And the third lesson was worse than the second lesson. I was just taking a whooping and so exhausted. And what you're doing is- You're not selling this. You're trying to move. I mean, the wind is taking you down the beach

and then eventually you just gotta come ashore and do this walk of shame all the way up to beach Trying to move, I mean, the wind is taking you down the beach and then eventually you just gotta come ashore and do this walk of shame all the way up to beach, carrying everything and you're absolutely exhausted. But I'm like, I'm not giving up. And so for my fourth and final lesson, she wasn't available and I went back to my original instructor, the owner, and I really felt like I needed it.

I needed to end with some sort of progress, which I made. I was able to stand up on the board and make some forward progress. Not enough to get any speed to where I could think about getting on foil, but like just taxiing on the board. But the thing is because he put me on that e-foil and I know what it feels like to fly on that board, it gave me so much momentum to stick with it. Because I know if I can now, I've got this dot out there that I know how to foil.

And if I can get the wing and my balance right, I can get back to that place where I can start to foil. So I actually feel like I wanna keep doing it. I'm looking into places I can do it here, maybe Castaic Lake, maybe at Long Beach, maybe. There's some ideal locations that are further away, but being in the surf and trying to start goofy-footed, those are two big things that were against me starting.

But it was like, I tried to have a philosophical approach. I was reading on Reddit threads about, this is really just about me observing my body and brain learn something. And if I can identify any, it's not about progress, but it's about like teaching my, allowing my body and brain to learn something is a victory. Like I started trying to take this,

this like belief level approach to it. But my body was really taking a beating. Like the top of both of my feet were just like, just decimated, bleeding. I ended up wearing socks and like, I had to start wearing a full wetsuit to protect my body from like, getting hit by the board if I didn't know what I was doing.

That made me really hot, but I am gonna do it, man. I'm gonna do it. Okay, well. You should just see them out there. Oh no, I think what I have learned in listening to you talk about this is because- Don't stop in a traffic circle. Oh yeah, that. Do stop at a military checkpoint.

Well, when I was seeing all those guys do that, and a lot of them were older, that's the thing, a lot of middle-aged guys, I was like, okay, maybe, and I've thought about this before, I did a whole deep dive two years ago, right? But then we started doing this, the- Stand up paddle boarding. Well, we did stand up paddle boarding,

but also once me and Shepherd got SCUBA certified after you and Lincoln did, I was like, oh, this is easier on my body. Instead of maybe going into some sort of wind sport. But now that I hear you talk about it and it's difficult of a time as you've had doing it, it's like, it's gonna be that much more difficult for me because anything that involves balance,

getting up on things, just not made for big men. So we might be diverging here, my friend, because you know the thing that I'm doing in a couple of weeks is I'm doing free, me and Chep are doing the free diving course. Yeah. So it's like- Which I'm sure we'll talk about. So yeah, you can hold your breath without me.

I will say that. Well, so maybe we, but see, we can still go together. I'll be above the water. We can still go together. I'm gonna be winding it. I'll be down there exploring the depths and I have a little boogie board up top, which is marking my little spot.

And you'll know where I'm at, and you can just wind around, and then we'll go back home together. There you go. So we got both things covered. We got the land and sea. I'm not above buying an e-foil, I will tell you that. I mean, but it's like-

I think I might be able to do that. Well, the thing, he did tell me that like, the advantage you have when you're taller is that it's easier for you to get the wing out of the water. If your wing touches the water, it's over. Mm. But the thing about, once you know how to use the wing, and you've built up some specialized shoulder strength, the wind kind of keeps the wing up.

So you're kinda just like. You're being pulled at that point. You're kinda more, your arms can be more loose. It's not like you're holding up weights. Yeah. So even now when I do this, it's like, woo, my shoulders are still a little bit feeling something. It was brutal, but I got so fixated on it that I did a lot more of that than hiking

or any of the other stuff. Well, it takes so much time. It takes a lot of time. So I did- Did you stand up, Patil? I did eight hours, just one day, but it was way too windy and choppy there. So I did eight hours of classes, not including the one hour e-foil on this thing.

So like, I'm just hoping I can find a group of people that in a place. I think that's the key. You have to find some people. Where I can like, maybe share somebody's equipment and like try something before I really go out there and start investing in this stuff. But so you talk about that connection. before I really go out there and start investing in this stuff. So you talk about that connection. There's one more connection between our two trips,

besides just seeing these wings. First of all, lots of good food in Oahu. Kailua is a great place. They had like a top-notch barbecue spot for like, that would rival one in Austin. And they would have like the, I think it's the Hawaiian pork, but it doesn't really, it's not really different.

Right, it's just the sauce is different. So the place is so good, it's called Easy Q. You had to like reserve the ribs that afternoon if you wanted to have them that night because they would sell out. I mean, like, so good ribs, good coffee, a Target and a Whole Foods. I pretty much had, and a good masseuse.

I had everything I needed in this town. And there's no, and they don't have a, they have like a ban on resorts and hotels on that entire side of the island. So it's basically just homes and mostly locals. So like the vibe, I really felt like a local or like a semi-local. But the other food that I was told we had to try out

was malasadas. Have you ever heard of these? I had not. So there was a truck called Leonard's, like a food truck you go to. There's a number of people that make them, but this is where we went. Malasadas is a yeast donut,

like a Portuguese donut. So here we got the Portugal connection. So you didn't see any of these in Portugal. They're big in Hawaii. And it's like- There's a lot of pastries in Portugal. It's a big, hot donut. Like I almost described it like a beignet,

like yeasty beignet, but like with sugar all over the top of it. And you can get custard inside. You can get like coconut cream or chocolate inside. And it's the best version of a donut I've ever had. And they're huge. You get them hot and fresh too.

Yes, you get them hot and fresh right out of the truck. And I was thinking about you. Well, the thing about the Portuguese pastries is that they're famous for this egg one that looks like a little quiche. Uh-huh. that they're famous for this egg one that looks like a little quiche. Pastel, pastel, the nut or something like that. I can't remember. But every pastry that I had was some mix of that,

like an egg custard pastry. It's weird that they didn't- Which is- Put them on a sunnys. Which is not bad. Yeah. But like they serve at room temperature and it kind of has this same consistency.

And I was like, okay, this isn't bad, but like it doesn't sound as good as what you're talking about. Oh, these things were magical, like soft and hot and dense, like a beignet, like super, super good stuff. And there was no savory ones, like with a beignet, you can get like a savory one, none of that.

None of that, but it was good. And the island was beautiful and I did get you something. I did get you something. I wish it was a malasada, but they're not hot. Oh, look at that. See, that is- It's a circle. That is representative of- That is toilet paper.

You see, it's green. It's made completely out of- Never seen anything like this before. Poi. Poi. Oh, yeah. Brand new. Have you been open?

Yeah, don't open it yet. You might wanna keep it. But yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you for thinking of me. You're welcome. And it's, yeah, it's completely made of poi, which is a big thing on the island.

Wow. Did you have any poi? Boy? Were you a poi boy? It's a bit bland. Yeah. Yeah. I think I might have to go back to Oahu. Well, yeah, you... Permanently. Because you were... Permanently, okay. That'd be interesting.

Just kinda feeling like... Are you thinking that you're gonna go back for your break next year? I'm thinking about Iceland at this point. But then the next year maybe I'll go back. I feel the call. It's so difficult, man. It's so difficult to figure out if you should go back to the same place and settle in or if you should, there's so many places.

I've never been to South America. I've never been to Africa. I've never been to Asia. You've been to Iceland? Nope. Never been to Iceland. There's most of Europe I haven't been to. Maybe I'll go to Portugal and do the wing foiling

once I know how to do that. It seems pretty awesome. And you know, if you go at the right time of year, the largest wave in the world is in Portugal. I don't wanna get on that. The 100 foot wave. That's crazy, dude. At Nazare or something like that?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We drove past there, but it's the summertime, so it's like, okay. It's amazing, like we were at the North Shore and it's amazing how it's like, well, okay, there's not notable waves. It's that- Was it even shore break? Like, cause the crazy like big shore break.

No. I didn't see anything like that people were like out there surfing, it was like super quiet. So it's such a wild contrast. It's time of year. Yeah. I think it, I mean, maybe I'm not addicted to vacation, maybe I just need to bring more vacation back

into my mainland life. Well, you actually took it in a different direction. Like the fact that you took eight hours of a class doing something very, very difficult. Like I thought- I didn't take a lot of naps. I rarely took a nap. I thought when you started,

I thought what you were gonna say is that you basically just like, it was like total chill mode the entire time, but it doesn't sound like that's what you did. No, actually my main objective was, and I know this sounds kind of wooish, but I said I wanted to get in my body. So like, for me, I wanted to like do a lot of like activities.

I know there was, I did do a number of like really great hikes. Lincoln and I did go, did some scuba diving. Me and the family did a good amount of snorkeling. We were in the water a lot, we were outside a lot. In the first week I went surfing, I tried to go surfing out at the shore break. And I pulled an oblique muscle.

And it was extremely painful the entire time, which made the wing foiling lessons really painful and hard too. But like, and I was actually pretty dejected that, and I was like working out, like I brought those like TRX straps and like, I really wanted to like get out of my head and get in my body.

But then I had these, like my feet were injured. And you kept hurting your body. I kept hurting myself and like I got. You got in your body and hurt it. Yeah, so I kind of experienced my physical limitations, but I didn't let it stop me. And so that was like a big part of the vacation for me was like being so active is what got me out of my head

like being so active is what got me out of my head instead of like napping and chilling out. I chilled out a good amount, but not to the amount that I expected of myself. Like I was pretty surprised by that. And so I think for that reason, I'm bringing a lot more energy back. And I wanna find ways to like, now I have to make sure that I keep doing that

because I've realized how beneficial me being and necessary for me and for my brain is being out of my brain and being active as long as I don't injure myself. So I think that was a big takeaway of mine. Yeah, so I'm not Jimmy Buffett. I'm more Laird Hamilton. Pfft.

I think you're Link Neal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you're Link Neal Neil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you're a link, Neil. You're your own thing. Actually, do I look like Jake the snake? Without the snake. Something like that. Without the snake. Jake sense snake.

Yeah, I think about the, like, what is the, because incidentally, you know, obviously we've talked about this before, And because incidentally, you know, obviously, we've talked about this before, about how we tend to talk about our travel, we tend to talk about our vacation and there were, you know, there was a contingent of the audience. He was like, I don't wanna hear you rich boys talk about your travel and your vacation.

Yeah. And then we said, we talked about how people had said that and most of you were like, we do wanna hear about your travel and your vacation. And then we talked about how people had said that and most of you were like, we do wanna hear about your travel and your vacations because they're funny stories and we watch this and listen to this for entertainment. At this point, we're kind of just gonna do what we wanna do.

So I'll say that. And this isn't about responding to those of you who wanna hear it and those of you who don't wanna hear it. These are things that happen to us and we're gonna talk about them. But I do think that one of the things that is true about this is that we, in order to prepare for our break,

we ended up, and Jenna knows this as well as anyone, ended up, it was quite a race to the finish, right, as we were leading out to us going out of town. Because as you know, we continue to do everything that we do, and then this year we added in, well, let's make a TV show for the internet as well, which was great, and we've loved doing it. But for me, my... Like, the thing that is difficult for me is that the engine is always going really, really fast. And when we're working, which is a lot, which is the vast majority of the time,

I transmute that into work. And then when I start a vacation, the engine is still going, but the work is not present. And so the engine has to be directed at something. And maybe another way to say it is the anxiety has to be directed at something. Which can be like travel,

like the transitions that happen in travel or the layover and the transportation or an agenda for an itinerary or whatever. And then that gets directed at Jessie in the moment. And so like three or four days into our vacation was when we basically were like, okay, she was like, we have to find a way for you to calm down and like slow down the motor, right? And it was a really good conversation.

And there was sort of a shift into more of a more centered, more relaxed mode. But once we got to North Carolina and we were a bit more in tune with what was going on here at Mythical, we're looking at cuts of the show and we're having remote meetings and that kind of thing, and we're preparing for everything that's just gonna explode as soon as we get back.

Basically, I found myself like, energized, but also like in one sense, like very grateful for how much I enjoy what we do. You know what I mean? Like there are aspects of being super busy or pressure, or, and there's aspects of running a company and stuff that's not fun, right? There's aspects of it that aren't fun or stressful.

But I think especially because the break that we took this year was in the midst of us making this thing that is exactly what we wanna make, that we are very excited about, that we hope you enjoy, but all we can do is hope that you enjoy it. We can't get- Oh, they will. We can't guarantee that you will.

And also- I can guarantee, I've seen enough of it to guarantee it. Well, I know some of you will. But I guess what I'm saying is that I will. I can guarantee, I've seen enough of it to guarantee it. I know some of you will, but I guess what I'm saying is that I think more so than ever, I'm not there yet, but I am much more close to a place where the satisfaction is in the execution of it

and coming together the way that we envision. And then the cherry on top would be that somebody enjoys it. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I'm not there yet. I'm in therapy and I will be for a long time. But in not needing a reaction from somebody or not needing somebody to like something to feel a value. And this is a constant like thing that I work on.

But I think for me, it was like an excitement. I was like, oh, that was very fun. It was great to, I had so many experiences that I didn't talk about just because we didn't have time, but like had a great time with Jesse, had a great time doing all this cool stuff, but was like very excited to get back. Because incidentally, we've got more Wonder Hole to shoot

just for season one. I'm aware. We've got a whole episode to shoot and the show premieres in just a couple of weeks, but we're fine. But I'm excited about it. So I think for me, it was a very necessary break. But to me, my process was, yes, I wanna do this

and I wanna prioritize self-care and all that, but also it was kind of a like, travel is awesome, but this job was pretty frigging awesome too. Yeah. You know what I mean? I definitely have an appreciation. I mean, even driving in today, I was thinking, I'm grateful to live in LA. I love LA.

Yeah, me too. You know, it's not like I don't wanna be here. You know, there's like, I love being here. Jesse said the same thing when we landed. So much going on. And it's just like, I know everybody rags on LA and everybody in North Carolina is like, you like it out there?

You like it out there? Love it. And everybody moving out of there? I'm like, yeah, whatever. They're not me. I love it here. I'm not moving. It's fine.

What other people do doesn't have to impact my opinion. I like it here. Yeah. But yeah, we were very, very grateful to be back. Yeah, and the things that we're working on, Wanderhole being the chief of it, but everything, the way that we're constructing our work lives is, I mean, it's a great privilege to be able to do that.

And it's like, yeah, I'm very excited. And so I think it's, I think the thing that I got was some clarity on like, the work-life balance for me and what each brings to the other, if they're in a balance, and how much I needed to devote to, I mean, just the simple physical activity of all,

not like, you know, for me, it's like, it's kind of a simple but I think powerful takeaway, but yeah, I'm very excited. And yeah, I was, because I was curious how I would feel coming back if I would, if I wouldn't be ready, if I would resent it. And I think it was just the right amount of time for me to feel just completely positive.

Do I wish I was walking the dogs on the beach a little bit, but I'm walking them here, it's fine. For now. All right, you can call us. Remember that. Yeah, do it. 1-888-EARPOD-1 Let us know what you're thinking about stuff. If you're in the area and you wanna start offering me wing foil advice or equipment, I'm not opposed.

I need a wing foil friend. He needs a wing man. I need a wing man. That's right. Or wing woman. I don't care. He needs a German wing woman. That's right. Yeah.

That's the best. Hey Rhett and Link. Rhett, I love your letter to Roger Federer. You have to send it to him. And we all wanna be new best friends with him too. So do it, get her done. And Link, love ya.